I’m not a big movie fan and Sweeney Todd – the Demon Barber of Fleet Street – is not the kind of movie that I would typically be interested in seeing. However, my son Aaron really wanted to see it, so I agreed to take him. The film stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd and is directed by the creative Tim Burton. I love this film! The cinematography is fantastic. I especially like the contrast between dreary and gloomy London and Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter’s) beach fantasy.

Can Johnny Depp sing? Yes he can! Not the best singer in the world, but he pulls it off nicely along with his outstanding acting ability. The music is great, but the story is even better. I found myself getting so engrossed in the story, that sometimes I didn’t even notice that the characters were singing. Tim Burton did a super job making a believable and scary musical, not an easy task. But this movie is more than a musical, this film has it all; funny dark humor, sad, bloody, gory, grizzly, suspenseful, thrilling, horrible and heartbreaking all in one movie.

I can not think of anything bad to say about this film. It is well casted and all of the actors played their parts well. The appearance of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) was fun. I hardly recognized him. He was a fine choice for the part of Signor Adolfo Pirelli. Johnny Depp is one of my favorite actors, which also encouraged me to see the movie, even though I don’t like bloody violence. And there is plenty of blood in this film. That said, even if you are bothered by the slicing of throats and the grinding of corpses into meat pies, I would encourage you to see this movie, because it is a masterpiece.

With the Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, I thought this would be a good time to plug this movie. Sweeney Todd has been nominated for three Oscars. Best Actor, achievement in art direction and for costume design. I hope Johnny Depp finally picks up the Oscar he deserves.

Sweeney Todd is now Aaron’s all-time favorite movie, finally a movie he thought was better than Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. Here’s a trailer that Aaron made for Sweeney Todd:

2 thoughts on “Sweeney Todd”

There was plenty of blood, that’s for sure. But, what creeped me out more was the heads hitting that cement slab. Aaron was bothered more by the kettle scene than the slashing. And watching the people eat the pies, was pretty disgusting too. But a unique and very well made movie. Glad to hear it got an Oscar, although Johnny Depp will have to wait a bit longer for his.